the Schnoor family as elves.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

the co-dependency with the "blinky" is over!

Out of nowhere, Keagan handed me his binky during bedtime and said "done!". He then set the binky next to his milk, on the windowsill, and went to bed without it. He slept through the night without the need for one bink in the mouth and one in each hand. Behavior repeated at nap time the next day and it has now been four days with zero requests .

In an effort to support his desire to quit the bink, the binky disappeared and hasn't come back since.

Success. No need to deal with the binky any longer or attempt to torture him when we feel it is time for it to go away -- phew!

keagan is seriously cautious when it comes to the man in the big red suit.

another perk of our neighborhood -- the oak hills holiday party.

can't you picture them hitting the slopes?

how keagan really feels about the cold and snow.

kynton & keagan frolicking in the snow.

The first snow of the season was absolutely stunning. But cold! Our high for the entire week won't be more than 30 degrees, lows in the teens. Kynton was an old pro at frolicking in the snow; this was Keagan's very first experience. For both, it was love at first sight.

What a schamozzle.

Tonight was Kendel's company holiday party and for the first time ever, my parents were unable to watch the boys because they also had Saturday night plans. Since they were unavailable, this meant we needed a babysitter. Yes, a babysitter. A first for both Kynton and Keagan.

Thankfully, Ashley, the daughter of a co-worker was available and the boys were so excited. Kynton began asking on Friday when she would be coming over. It felt like he continued to ask every ten minutes on Saturday when she would arrive. The time finally arrives, she arrives and the boys have a complete melt down. Not screaming and crying, but an insane amount of showing off. Kynton doing tumbling and talking back, Keagan trying to wrestle her and jumping on the furniture -- who are these kids?

I feel like it is safe to leave and we depart, but I remind Ashley once last time to call me if anything goes awry.

We're at the party for no less than 2 minutes and the phone rings. I can hear Keagan practically hyperventilating in the background. Kynton isn't helping the situation either as he too is saying "I miss my mommy!". The two are egging eachother on. And poor, poor Ashley. She is extremely apologetic she even called.

Since we're in Portland, Oma comes to the rescue. Sneaking out of her gig, she rushes home, calms Kynton and brings Keagan back to the party. As soon as Keagan sees Opa, he cuddles with him and stays in his lap, thankful to be in his presence, and sits through the rest of their evening activities. And Kynton, well, he was just fine.

The crazy thing is that when my parents return home with Keagan, both boys flock to Ashley. Showing her their things, playing around her, never leaving her side. Why couldn't they have been that way from 6:00 - 8:30 pm?

Keagan is a natural dancer and has been since he could coordinate his little body. He's a closet dancer and it is difficult to capture his moves on tape. On one long car ride I found a way to trick him and caught him in action!

Keagan and his peeps.

Keagan was lucky enough to attend the gDiapers holiday Mummy & Me tea. Even luckier for him was the fact that his two "girlfriends" Addison and Sage were able to come, too.

Kynton helping daddy hang up Christmas lights.

Proudly clinging to their prized possession, the candy cane.

Keagan wants absolutely nothing to do with Santa.

The only reason why Keagan would sit on Santa's lap was for the promised candy cane he immediately opened once the torture session was over.

Kynton grabbed Keagan's hand and told him he'd be "with him and Santa".

Big and Little brother waiting patiently for their turn with Santa.

Wow, it's hard to believe this is almost his fourth visit to sit on Santa's lap.

first visit from the tooth fairy to the Schnoor home.

What a horrible night Tuesday was. Kynton lost his first tooth and it was no where to be found. We searched the car high and low and it wasn't until after bedtime, in the pitch dark and cold, that I found it in a crevice under the driver's seat. I had never cried so hard over an item and didn't realize until the search began how much his first tooth physically meant to me. Since we didn't have the tooth when Kynton went to bed, it was determined, we'd wait to put it under his pillow until the following night.

That night, Kynton couldn't wait to get to bed and actually went to sleep almost an hour earlier than Keagan. Kendel took care of all the details and then it was time for all of us to head to bed.

The next morning, I awake to the pitter patter of Kynton's feet and him saying, "Oma, look at what the tooth fairy left me!" He then heads into our room and instantly looks for Keagan in our bed. Upon finding him, without any hesitation, he says, "brother, look what the tooth fairy brought: one for me and one for you." And with that, he hands his little brother one of the two gold coins the tooth fairy left for him.

What a fabulous way to start the day. Filled with warmth and joy. Grateful to have such a thoughtful, loving boy to call "son".

boys will be boys.

This week was an interesting week for the Schnoor family. Timeline goes something like this:

Almost a week ago from today, we awake to find Keagan's face and part of his neck covered in purple spots. Being the neurotic mama that I am, I immediately jump out of bed, get dressed and start making calls. Of course, I immediately jump to the conclusion that it must be meningococcal (or some other deadly disease!), but am relieved to find out the poor guy had polka dots due to coughing so hard through the night that he busted capillaries in his face. Poor guy! However, we were strongly cautioned that the minute the spots became worse, spread below his nipples or he came down with a fever we were to go straight to the ER. The cough continues through the weekend and we all religiously check the little guy's belly to ensure the spots weren't spreading. And the never did.

Monday comes and I have the opportunity to work late, so I take it. Five o'clock rolls around and a call from Kendel comes urging me to come home because Keagan isn't doing well. I rush home only to find an extremely sick baby -- high fever (104 degrees based on my nursing skills), screaming, dry heaving and just all around not himself. We rush to Urgent Care first, hoping we can offset some medical costs, only to be turned away. The nurse called to the front desk calmly alerts me that they are not able to see a young child as sick as he his. I'm instantly mortified when she takes one look at him and asks, "how long has he looked like this?" What can such a question possibly mean? We rush to the ER and quickly have a room due to his age. Six and a 1/2 hours later after a single dose of Motrim, a chest x-ray ruling out pneumonia, some blood work ruling out pertussis, a popsicle and stuffed cat from the dollar store turn Keagan around. By midnight, he's laughing and the doctor's are amazed it is the same kid based on how sick he was when we first came in. Truly a miracle, but talk about frustrating! Luckily Kendel had Monday Night Football to help; all I had was an extremely outdated issue of Portland Monthly.

At least Keagan shared half of his red popsicle with me.

While dealing with Keagan's four-week long coughing fit, another Schnoor medical emergency occurs -- this time it is Kynton's turn.

Sunday evening both boys are playing chase, tag and hide-and-seek through the house. I'm exhausted and can recall telling them oh, close to fifteen times to stop running through the house and get ready for bed. I turn off all the lights at the far end of the house hoping to urge them to stay in their room and head off to our room to finish putting away the weekly laundry. A few minutes pass and I hear Kynton scream and then he comes running to our room in tears. My first thought is Keagan must have taken a pass at him, but then he tells me he ran into the counter. Ouch! The kitchen was pitch black, the new island is in place, and our counter tops are black. He didn't have a chance.

Sadly, I chalk up his tears to exhaustion and not to pain and urge him to go to bed. The crying continues, his gums above his two front teeth turn blacker and blacker. And I'm on the internet trying to find some answers. We give him a dose of children's tylenol (Keagan too because he claims his "teet" hurt) and off to sleep they both go. Monday morning comes and he is still complaining of pain, so I make a call to Gentle Dental as we don't have a dentist we can call our own and the appointment is made for later that morning.

Kynton was such a trooper! He sat through the exam without any whining, wiggling or complaining. They cleaned his teeth, flossed, took x-rays and analyzed the still beautiful white tooth sitting in a gum that was obviously extremely bruised and irate. The end conclusion once the exam was done was gloomy: two cavities, one chipped tooth and the hurt tooth must be extracted. News of the cavitities really aggravated me. Especially since I'm so careful about what the boys eat and make sure they brush their teeth. But I'm not a fan of flossing, so that's one strike against me. Second strike, bad genes. Kendel has horrible teeth and a ton of fillings, so there isn't much I can do to combat that.

Since Kynton is starving and doesn't want to miss any time at Hillside, we decide the tooth will be pulled first thing the next morning. Tuesday arrives and Kynton is ushered back into the dentist chair without me (they recommend I don't tag along). A little over an hour goes by and he comes out, tokens in hand and a big wad of gauze stuck where his little white tooth used to be. He's beaming, the dentist is amazed at what an "excellent patient" he is and we then discuss what went down behind closed doors. Unfortunately, Kynton's mouth experienced more trauma then originally determined and a visit to an oral surgeon is recommended. The reason is because not all of the tooth could be removed, even after two different dentists have tried. This needs to be looked at because as I understand, it can cause further issues to the adult tooth if it doesn't naturally reabsorb into his mouth. More on that to follow after his appointment on Thursday with the oral surgeon.

Wednesday is the day he'll receive three fillings and potentially a pulp procedure, similar to a root canal, if the chipped tooth needs more protection. Fingers crossed he is as good of a patient on this third trip as he was the two times before!

I absolutely dread the dentist. Which is exactly why Kynton's first trip was only due to an oral injury. Now I feel bad about this as he has cavities and a chipped tooth I never ever would have noticed. I guess the positive element to the story is the cavities were found, Kynton had a good time and he ended up with a visit from the tooth fairy!